A new form of ice has been discovered

Forms of ice, physicists already knew about twenty. But they’ve only just identified one more. A form that appears under extreme pressure conditions. Such as those which could exist on extra-solar worlds.

the graphite, it is found in the leads of our pencils. the diamond, rather on the fingers of the ladies. Both, however, are uniquely composed ofatoms of carbon. What makes the difference is the arrangement of these atoms. The conditions of temperature and pressure in which the carbon in question evolved. And, we know it even less, but it’s a bit the same for ice cream. There are at least twenty forms.

Today, some researchers at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (United States) describe one of them. A form of ice that does not exist naturally on the Earth’s surface because it comes from water placed under extreme pressure conditions. This form of ice could thus be found in the coat of our planet. But also on other planets or moons. Including outside our solar systemmaking these exoplanets habitable.

High pressure ice cream

The researchers placed a water sample in the heart of a diamond anvil cell. The water was thus squeezed in jerks to pressures such as those prevailing in the center of our earth. Suddenly because the physicists have regularly put the process on hold to warm up the whole laser. Thus, the water froze, then the ice crystals melted. And it turns out that the operation led to the formation of a variety of arrangements of the atoms ofoxygen (O) andhydrogen (H) that make up water (H₂0).

The researchers first observed the formation of a known type of ice, ice VII, with a cubic structure. But also ice cream X, they expected it, but at much higher pressures — of the order of a millionatmospheres vs ” only “ 300,000 here. And finally, between the two, a transition ice shape called VIIt with a tetragonal structure.